- You are here:
-
Home
- Abstinence News
- Details
- Category: Abstinence News
Like a Virgin: The Press Take On Teenage Sex
The chain reaction was something out of central casting. A medical journal starts it off by announcing a study comparing teens who take a pledge of virginity until marriage with those who don't. Lo and behold, when they crunch the numbers, they find not much difference between pledgers and nonpledgers: most do not make it to the marriage bed as virgins.
Like a pack of randy 15-year-old boys, the press dives right in.
"Virginity Pledges Don't Stop Teen Sex," screams CBS News. "Virginity pledges don't mean much," adds CNN. "Study questions virginity pledges," says the Chicago Tribune. "Premarital Abstinence Pledges Ineffective, Study Finds," heralds the Washington Post. "Virginity Pledges Fail to Trump Teen Lust in Look at Older Data," reports Bloomberg. And on it goes.
In other words, teens will be teens, and moms or dads who believe that concepts such as restraint or morality have any application today are living in a dream world. Typical was the lead for the CBS News story: "Teenagers who take virginity pledges are no less sexually active than other teens, according to a new study."
Here's the rub: It just isn't true.
In fact, the only way the study's author, Janet Elise Rosenbaum of Johns Hopkins University, could reach such results was by comparing teens who take a virginity pledge with a very small subset of other teens: those who are just as religious and conservative as the pledge-takers. The study is called "Patient Teenagers? A Comparison of the Sexual Behavior of Virginity Pledgers and Matched Nonpledgers," and it was published in the Jan. 1 edition of Pediatrics.
The first to notice something lost in the translation was Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of both the Red Cross and the National Institutes of Health. Today she serves as health editor for U.S. News & World Report. And in her dispatch on this study, Dr. Healy pointed out that "virginity pledging teens were considerably more conservative in their overall sexual behaviors than teens in general -- a fact that many media reports have missed cold."
What Dr. Healy was getting at is that the pledge itself is not what distinguishes these kids from most other teenagers. The real difference is their more conservative and religious home and social environment. As she notes, when you compare both groups in this study with teens at large, the behavioral differences are striking. Here are just a few:
- These teens generally have less risky sex, i.e., fewer sexual partners.
- These teens are less likely to have a teenage pregnancy, or to have friends who use drugs.
- These teens have less premarital vaginal sex.
- When these teens lose their virginity they tend to do so at age 21 -- compared to 17 for the typical American teen.
- And very much overlooked, one out of four of these teens do in fact keep the pledge to remain chaste -- amid much cheap ridicule and just about zero support outside their homes or churches.
Let's put this another way. The real headline from this study is this: "Religious Teens Differ Little in Sexual Behavior Whether or Not They Take a Pledge."
Now, whatever the shock that might occasion at CBS or the Washington Post, it comes as no surprise to parents. Most parents appreciate that a pledge of virginity -- a one-time event that might be made at an emotional moment in a teen's life -- is not some talisman that will magically shield their sons and daughters from the strong and normal desires that grow as they discover their sexuality. What these parents hope to do is direct these desires in a way that recognizes sex as a great gift, which in the right circumstances fosters genuine intimacy between a man and a woman and at its freest offers the possibility of new life.
This is not the prevailing view, of course. And these parents know it. Far from conformists living in a comfortable world where their beliefs are never challenged, these families live in an environment where most everything that is popular -- television, the movies, the Internet -- encourages children to grow up as quickly as possible while adults remain locked in perpetual adolescence.
Nor do these families believe their children are better than other kids. Unlike the majority of health experts and their supporters in the press, however, they don't believe that the proper use of the condom is the be all and end all. For these parents, the good news here is that the striking behavioral differences between the average American teen and the two teen groups in this study show that homes and families still exert a powerful influence.
That, alas, is not something you're likely to read in the headlines. For when it comes to challenging the conventional wisdom on issues of sexuality, the American media suddenly become as coy as a cloistered virgin.
Read this article at the Wall Street Journal Website
- Details
- Category: Abstinence News
A Dangerous Precedent Abuilding in California - By Paul M. Weyrich (October 25, 2007)
There is terrible news from California. On October 12, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law three bills which, the opposition argues, introduce the radical homosexual agenda into educational institutions. Unquestionably the traditional purpose of public education is to teach reading, writing, mathematics and other fundamentals necessary for well-rounded intellectual development. Instead, these institutions apparently will become miniature laboratories for redefining nature, implementing “gender theory” and experimenting with the effects of sexual lifestyles.
The first bill, SB 777, evidently bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as discriminating against or critical of homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality or other alternative lifestyle choices. It prohibits any classroom instruction or school-sponsored activity that “promotes a discriminatory bias” against “sexual orientation” and “gender,” which includes cross-dressing, sex changes and any other behavior “not stereotypically associated with one’s assigned sex at birth.” Forget any book, reference or teaching aid which shows marriage as only between a man and a woman (the definition California voters approved several years ago); materials which say people are born male or female (not in-between or subject to change); sources which fail to include a variety of transsexual, bisexual and homosexual historical figures; and sex education materials which fail to offer the option of sex changes. In addition, homecoming kings can now be either male or female, as can homecoming queens, and students, whether male or female, must be allowed to use the restroom and locker room corresponding to the sex with which they choose to identify (potentially especially pernicious to young girls). Such an attempt to redefine language to suit one’s political and sexual interests would make George Orwell proud.
AB 394 requires the State Department of Education to monitor adherence to anti-discrimination and anti-harassment requirements involving “actual or perceived gender identification and sexual orientation” in local schools. Schools must adopt policies which prohibit discrimination and harassment based upon sexual identity or orientation and a process to receive and investigate complaints in these cases. Schools also will have to provide classroom handouts (including some specifically for parents) and display information in the halls, lounges and on websites that specifically address “bias-related discrimination and harassment” against homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality or other “alternative lifestyle choices.”
The final bill, AB 14, prohibits state funding for any program that does not support a range of alternative sexual practices, including state-funded social services run by churches. This means that day-cares, preschools, after-school programs, food and housing programs, senior services, anti-gang efforts, job programs and others must all teach and accept homosexuality, bisexuality, transsexuality and all the other sexualities. It also forces every hospital in California, even private and religious hospitals, to adopt policies of support for the aforementioned sexualities and opens up non-profit organizations to lawsuits if they exclude members who engage in any such sexual conduct.
Governor Schwarzenegger rejected a bill to authorize same-sex marriage. Also, a year ago he vetoed bills similar to SB 777, AB 394 and AB 14, stating that existing state law already provided penalties for discrimination. Why he reversed himself now is unclear. He has not held a press conference or issued a statement on this legislation. But the harm his decision will do is clear if the law becomes effective on January 1, 2008 and is interpreted and implemented literally. It would turn California’s children over to those who want to indoctrinate them in perversion in order to validate their own lifestyle choices. Homosexual advocates are aware that there is no more captive audience than schoolchildren, both because they are impressionable and because education is compulsory, and have pursued their agenda aggressively through state legislators and bureaucrats. In California they may have succeeded in implementing intolerance for what, in every human society and culture, has been the understanding of men, women, marriage, sexuality and nature.
Those parents who can afford to pull their children from public schools and place them in private schools or homeschool them will probably do so. But most families cannot afford to do so. They will be forced to send their children to schools which expressly contradict their values. Multiple studies have shown the disastrous effect the breakdown of marriage has had on the poor¬e.g., it keeps them in a vicious cycle of poverty. Now the Government of California plans to do more harm to the poor.
Sex has no place in educational institutions. It belongs at home, where parents have a responsibility to teach their children about it. But California’s politicians, intent upon using the power of law and manipulating public institutions to deny nature, control thought, speech and action, and force their perversion on others, want sex everywhere in public schools.
The Capitol Resource Institute in California has launched a referendum campaign to overturn SB 777. The group will need to secure 433,971 valid voter signatures within 90 days to qualify for the June 2008 ballot.
If the referendum is unsuccessful, be prepared for some momentum to spread east because California’s resources and population make California enormously influential. Textbook publishers will take note of this new legislation and amend their books accordingly in order to stay in business in the State.
We must make Americans aware of what is happening and be prepared to fight it. Either that or we must be prepared for the “tolerant” left to begin persecuting those who advocate social and cultural positions opposed to theirs. This is as gross an abuse of power as I have ever seen.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
- Details
- Category: Abstinence News
The Hilltop
March 16, 2007 Campus Group Urges Abstinence
Vanessa Mizell
Contributing Writer
He's more than willing to show you his two bullet wounds on the side of his arm and on the night he led his organization's meeting, 31-year-old Carl L. Miller didn't even realize he was wearing the same shirt he had been car jacked in outside his Southeast home nearly two years ago.
When he lay in the hospital bed watching doctors extract bullets from his flesh, all he could think of was: "I've got 60,000 dollars in student loans! I can't go now! I haven't done anything for you yet God!" he recounted jokingly behind a kiddish smile and emerald green eyes.
Howard graduate student and licensed social worker, Miller said that it was the night he was face-to-face with the barrel of a gun against his Lexus GS-300 window and the viewing of a documentary on HIV/AIDS that drove him to saving lives.
Miller and Kristi Love, also a graduate student in social work, decided to create S.T.A.A.N.D., Students Against AIDS and the Abolition of National Denial. The organization seeks to highlight the pandemic's crisis in the African-American community and combat the ignorance thereof.
"AIDS is one of our enemies," Miller said.
For that reason, S.T.A.A.N.D is charging all Howard University students to abstain from sex for a semester. The initiative is called Semester of Abstinence and Advocacy and it challenges Howard students because Miller feels strongly that the university is the leader of the African-American community.
The general response he gets from students when proposing the initiative?
"Huh? What? You want me to do what?" he imitated. But he and other members of STAAND say that many students are receptive to the cause behind the idea.
"People really want to know it and just may not know the proper steps to make change," said freshman African-American studies major Nikita Ford, who decided to join after she attended the organization's co-hosted panel entitled "Sex Matters."
This week's meeting, STAAND discussed ways for members to be certified in HIV/AIDS starter facts. The group also wants to find ways to engage the community.
In a visit to Ben's Chili Bowl last week, Miller read that a group of Middle and High School students were holding a panel discussion to kick off their Abstinence Awareness Week, challenging the D.C. metropolitan area and District Council members to promote abstinence as a way to curb HIV/AIDS, STDs and other health dangers to D.C.'s youth.
Miller knew he had to attend. He did.
The eight panelists ages 12 to 20 all belong to an organization called Ultra Teen Choice, a local teen peer-counseling program.
"I'm too young to be having sex," said eighth grade panelist Sabrina Donelson in her introduction.
When the floor was open to comments from the audience, Miller approached the microphone and championed the students' decision to abstain from sex. Regarding the subject that surfaced about the impact of the media, Miller also shared his story about his first assignment as a social worker.
"It was an 11-year-old pregnant girl whose 24-year-old mother had full blown AIDS and when I walked into the living room, the rest of the kids were sitting there watching BET."
The co-founder and executive director of Ultra Teen Choice, Richard Urban believes that abstinence should be the standard for the youth and questions why the government doesn't fund more "serious" tracks to help youth stay abstinent. He disagrees with the promotion of condoms to encourage safe sex.
"The majority, 52 percent, [of youth in D.C.] have never had sex. That's down 16 percent in two years and that's not because they're handing out condoms. These are kids who are saying, 'I've never had sex.'"
But watch out for misleading figures, says Family Nurse Practitioner Anne Squires. She has been working at Eastern Senior High School's Unity Health clinic for nearly six years. The clinic is only one of two in the District located inside a school.
She agrees that abstinence is a great tool for curbing STD rates but says that a lot of students are not making that choice.
"I think we have to be realistic," Squires said. "If they have made that choice then I feel it's my responsibility to help them make safe choices."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the District has the highest rates of HIV infections in the country. The Administration for HIV Policy and Programs reports that nearly 1 out of 50 District residents is living with AIDS.
Miller still believes that abstinence until marriage is the only way to combat the HIV/AIDS disease, whose most common victim in the U.S. is likely to be an African-American woman.
Beyond Howard students, Miller also challenged Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards about the issue while the former senator visited the campus yesterday. Edwards did make mention of the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
Miller rushed Edwards after his speech in a crowded School of Business lobby: "I know Africa's bad, but what's your plan to deal with it here in America?" asked Miller to Edwards.
"I haven't announced a plan yet but I'm working on it now. I know it's a big issue," responded Edwards distractingly as he and his team snaked through the throng of students.
Miller said that STAAND will be contacting Edward's aides to arrange a meeting. "I'm not going to say that Edwards doesn't have a plan," said Miller, "I just can't wait to see what it is."